Back in 2014, Digital Journal began following the story of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining in Appalachia and its link to an increase in cancers. At that time, research done by the University of West Virginia came up with solid evidence that mining dust collected from residential communities causes cancerous human lung cell changes, accounting for the 60,000 new cancer cases in the region.
It took the actions of a group called the Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) and its leader, Bo Webb to get the federal government interested in doing a study on MTR and the health risks associated with the process.
Digital Journal interviewed Mr. Webb in October 2014 after he had been told by Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky that he would sponsor a bill mandating a health study be done. Mr. Webb was even asked to help in writing the legislation.
All Mr. Webb’s hard work on the proposed bill, along with the studies on cancer rates, culminated in HR 526 being introduced to Congress in 2015. In 2016, under the Obama administration, the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM) gave the National Academy of Sciences $1 million to determine the human health effects for people living near coal mine operations.
Study formally terminated
On Friday, August 18, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement informed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that it should cease all work on a study of the potential health risks for people living near surface coal mine sites in Central Appalachia.
The federal agency’s reason for terminating the study? They said it was reviewing the “responsible use of the taxpayer’s money.” Actually, according to an Interior Department spokeswoman, In April, the agency was ordered to look at all grants totaling over $100,000, reports The Hill.
This action goes along with Trump’s proposed budget issued in May, slashing the OSM’s budget to $129 million for the fiscal year 2018, a 49 percent cut from the previous year. However, the House Appropriations Committee voted last month to give the agency $213 million.
But the underlying reason is Trump’s efforts to eliminate policies and other impediments to his drive to revive the coal industry in this country, even if doing so does make people sick. And don’t forget that in June, the Trump administration repealed an important Obama-era EPA clean water regulation.
President Trump signed one of his now infamous executive orders in February directing EPA chief Scott Pruitt to begin the legal process of rolling back the water rule, calling it “one of the worst examples of federal regulation.” The problem with rolling back this rule is that for people living in Appalachia, it is more like a death threat.
CC License: Attrition, no deriv.
Anyone who has ever seen the pictures of the filthy orange and rust-colored waters of the mountain streams will know what people had to live with, and now that toxic slurry from coal mining will return to contaminate people’s drinking water. Bill Price, the senior Appalachia organizer at the Sierra Club, called the administration’s decision to halt the National Academy study “infuriating.”
“Trump has once again shown the people of Appalachia that we mean nothing to him,” he said in a statement. And this statement seems to sum up what more and more people are feeling about the current administration. Trump is only looking out for his own interests and those of his family business and those of his cohorts.
If we are to believe what White House officials are saying, tonight, Trump will be asking the American public to “trust him on his decision” on the war in Afghanistan. I have a feeling he will want to keep us at war, not because of any patriotic visions of making that country a democracy, but because of the lucrative mineral resources to be found in Afghanistan, and the H— with getting more American military personnel killed.
